Ultrasound Therapy for Sports Injuries

Published: 29 July 2018 (1019 Views)

An athlete’s body is his most prized possession. Taking care of it is his number one priority. That’s why he’ll do everything necessary to maintain his body in its prime form. This includes slowing down when needing to, especially when something hurts. Overdoing or not properly warming up before exercising may lead to an injury. This can range from muscle strains and sprains, tears of the ligaments which hold joints together, dislocated joints, tears of the tendons, and fractured bones.

To rehabilitate and recover from the injury, ultrasound is a useful and effective tool. Ultrasound is not only for monitoring a pregnancy and detecting birth defects but also for physical therapy of sports injuries.

Here are the things that ultrasound can do for sports injuries:

Deep heating. This is the therapeutic process of increasing the tissue temperature to improve circulation in the specific area to treat. This may be done to tendons, muscles, and ligaments as well. Deep heating helps ease pain and speed up the healing process. This works effectively for shoulder pain, frozen shoulders, and painful joints. Not only that, but deep heating helps improve the elasticity of muscles and tendons, which means that it can help you perform different ranges of motion.

Deep heating is also useful for people who experience chronic pain or phantom pain because deep heating can improve tissue elasticity and blood circulation. Additionally, because of the warming effect, the painful area will gradually stop hurting.

Cavitation, on the other hand, is the therapeutic process of introducing a concentrated amount of energy into the area of the body to be treated. This process will cause gas bubbles to form around the tissues in the body. What this will do is make the tissues expand and contract rapidly. This will help speed up cellular processes that are responsible for the body’s regeneration.

What will your therapist do?

To begin, your therapist will apply a small amount of gel over a particular area of your body that needs physical therapy. He or she will move the transducer (head device) slowly around the area. He or she will use a circular motion and change the settings depending on the need. Don’t worry, therapists know what they’re doing as they control the depth and intensity of penetration of the ultrasound waves. You’ll feel a warming and tingling sensation over the area that is being treated.

If there is an open wound in the area that is going to be treated, your therapist will add a topical medication with the gel to help reduce swelling and prevent inflammation.

Precautions

Be aware that you are not allowed to use ultrasound for physical therapy over areas with loss of sensation, over a pacemaker and other metal implants, around the eyes and sex organs, and over fractured bones.